A Personalised ExperienceOkinawa Diving

Diving with Piranha

I am Jan, and this is my wife, Tomoko. We are the founders of Piranha Divers, a scuba diving training centre in sunny Okinawa. We provide services in both English and German to foreigners visiting or living in Okinawa.

I first started diving in 1999, basically as soon as I was old enough to put on a scuba tank and stay underwater. That first dive into the deep was in a chilly German quarry, but the cold experience didn’t put me off and I’ve had a passion for diving ever since.

Later, I became a PADI diving instructor and my work took me to Egypt (where I met my lovely wife), Greece, Australia and Thailand. In 2009, we settled in Okinawa with the goal to establish a dive service.

We would love to welcome you here too, where you will experience the best diving in Japan, which includes modern safety standards, fantastic sub-tropical island life, and not to mention, lots of sun, stunning beaches and crystal clear, warm waters (25–30°C most of the year).

We believe you’ll love diving in Okinawa with us because we offer smaller dive groups and a more personal service than you’ll find elsewhere on the island. If you’re a complete beginner, an instructor or anywhere in between, we can tailor-make a dive program to suit your requirements. Diving with us also gives you access to a full range of modern rental equipment – maintained and regularly updated.

Diving in Okinawa

Okinawa is the main island of Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture. It is located in the Ryukyus, a chain of volcanic Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan.

About half way up this 112 km long island, is where our shop is located (perfect for accessing all of Okinawa’s best dive sites).

While Okinawa has a wide variety of incredible dive sites, we try to focus on the northern part of the island where there’s more nature to see and fewer people to bump into.

Diving in Onna VillageAre you looking for a day of “easy” diving? Maybe your last dive is already some time ago. Or are you still learning how to dive? If this sounds like you, then Maeda Point and famous Blue Cave is perfect! With it’s beautiful rock formations and very blue water, it's a truly great dive location with a moderate depths of 20m (60 feet) and minimal to no currents.

If you’re looking for something a little more challenging, we’ll take you to Manza where there are several dynamic dive spots with incredibly varied marine life and continuously changing topography.

Frogfish at Nakayukui Point, turtles and white-tipped reef sharks at Overhang Rock, and grey reef sharks at Horseshoe are just some of the sea creatures you might get to see, as well as lots of garden eels and fan corals at the magical Manza Dreamhole.

Diving in Northern OkinawaIf you’re interested in adventure, or history (and have at least 50 dives under your belt), then you will love the wreck of the USS Emmons! It’s an American Destroyer, around 40m deep, off the coast of Kouri Island. It’s really quite surreal yet an eerie reminder of Okinawa’s darkest hour during WWII.

Continuing the adventure, the most northern point of Okinawa offers Cape Hedo, a unique dive location where the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea meet to create an incredible mix of marine life and diving intensity. You can experience vibrant reefs, occasional strong currents and the famous Hedo Dome (a cave dive, entered from underwater before an inside ascent, where you may just find traces of prehistoric life).

"The best way to observe a fish is to become a fish."– Jacques Yves Cousteau

Learning to Dive with Piranha Divers

Learning to dive with us in Okinawa gives you the benefit of our small classes and high regard for safety. For entry level certification our maximum class size is only four divers to one instructor. For all other courses the maximum class size is six divers to one instructor, so plenty of time for your questions and concerns to be addressed.All courses are taught in English or German, and we guarantee you personal guidance through the entire learning process to make sure that you’ll be a comfortable diver after certification.
Visit learn to dive to get more information

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."– Jacques Yves Cousteau

Our Favorite Divespots

The northern parts of the island are nowhere near as developed as those further south. Which is why we like them. Not only do you get to experience some of the hidden adventures Okinawa diving has to offer, you also get a glimpse into a more traditional Okinawan lifestyle.